If I were to ask you how federal and defense agencies buy from you, what would be your response? This, of course, would depend on your organization having been awarded an agreement, contract, contract vehicle or an order against a contract vehicle. The point, however, is would you know the terminology used by agencies to describe the instruments they use, so you could look for more purchased this way?

In a given fiscal year, the details of a majority of contract actions executed by federal agencies, can be easily viewed by the general public. There are multiple free, government-hosted repositories, accessible on the World Wide Web. If you ask these repositories, they will present you with useful artifacts about:

With all of this information available, you might wonder why a large number of small and large companies have a difficult time finding viable business opportunities. A key cause of difficulty for many is context. What does that mean? Simply, they don’t understand what they are looking at or hearing.

Here’s an example of what it might feel like. The term I want you to consider in answering my next question is:

Think fast, if we were out in the wilderness and encountered this, should we:

Without some previous knowledge of Albanian, you would have no idea it means water (according to Google Translate). That knowledge, however acquired, is the basis of context.

This is the precise situation thousands of companies encounter every day in Government Contracting. They are confronted with an entirely new language to hear, read, and speak, with no preparation or advance warning. Imagine trying to make decisions using information provided in a language you did not understand. Unless a translator is on-hand, your efforts to make decisions will be greatly hindered. By the way, is the translator someone you trust? After all, would you know if they were not translating accurately. This happens frequently, too. Think about information shared in the various meetings and conferences. As they say, trust but verify.

Here is how information like this can be useful to Government Contractors.

In the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS) ezSearch tool, cited by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) Integrated Award Environment (IAE) team as “the authoritative source for entering and viewing contract award data,” you can view robust information about the use of award instruments, by federal and defense agencies. The information in this system can help you discern if buying activities prefer a Purchase Order, an Indefinite Delivery Contract, or a Blanket Purchase Agreement when buying what you sell.

Why does this matter? If you are looking for evidence-based trends related to how agencies buy, at any level, this is a quick and reliable way to acquire this information. If you understand the information as presented.

These Indefinite Delivery Vehicles (IDV) are commonly referred to as contract vehicles. Do you know which ones are multiple-award? Single award? Both?

Here are two of the four Awards you will find in FPDS. When they are issued, each transaction has two distinct contract numbers.

When issued, these awards have only one contract number. They also represent nearly half of all fiscal spending via contracts.

Which Awards/IDVs matter to your company? To your customers? Knowing how to acquire and interpret this information will reduce the time and money companies spend on Business Development Life Cycle activities.

Peace and Health,

Go-To-Guy

*“Definitive contract” means any contract that must be reported to FPDS other than an indefinite delivery vehicle. This definition is only for FPDS, and is not intended to apply to part 16.